Trying to watch German shows in the U.S.

Misi

I was hoping that I could use the location aspect of the VPN to allow me to watch RTL+ shows in the U.S., but even though I've set the VPN to a virtual location in Germany, the German website knows I'm not in the country somehow and blocks the videos.

Any advice on what I can do?

Alexandru_BD

Hello @Misi,

Some websites have implemented a system to detect VPNs and do not load or display errors if the Internet connection is filtered through a VPN.

To determine whether the problem lies within the VPN, temporarily disconnect from Bitdefender VPN and then try to visit again the site. To disconnect Bitdefender VPN, simply press the power button on the VPN interface. If the site still doesn’t load after interrupting the VPN, the issue lies somewhere else. If the site loads properly in this situation, you know it’s the VPN that is causing the issue. 

Step 1 – Connect to another Bitdefender VPN server.

Certain websites practice geo-blocking as a way of limiting access to their content based on geographical location. Geo-blocking is done by identifying an IP address. What does that mean? For instance, if you live in the USA and you connect Bitdefender VPN to the German server, an IP corresponding to that country will be assigned to your device. Now, all websites will think that you access the Internet from Germany. But if you go to a site whose content isn’t available in Germany, you won’t be able to access that specific site. Of course, in this particular case RTL is available in Germany.

As a first troubleshooting method, if you can’t view a website with the VPN on, connect to a few different VPN servers from the list of available locations.

Start with the country you are currently in. Bitdefender Premium VPN provides servers in over 45 regions across the globe. If there is no VPN server for your country or the VPN location is already set to your country, then choose the nearest region.

To connect to a different server:

Open the Bitdefender VPN app on your device, then do the following:

1. Press the Virtual Location button in the lower part of the interface.
2. Select any country you wish, or type the name of a country in the search bar to filter your results.
3. Click on the Connect to [country of choice] button in the lower part of the interface.

If the site doesn’t work regardless of the VPN server, go to the next step.

Step 2 – Use Split Tunneling to whitelist the site.

Split Tunneling allows you to route any website outside the VPN connection, to access the Internet directly. This feature is currently only available for Windows, Android, and iOS.

I have included some screenshots displaying the steps to follow:

Let us know if this helps.

Stay safe.

Misi

I appreciate this response.

The problem is clearly geoblocking - RTL+ isn't available in the U.S. for streaming. However, even when I use the VPN to make my location "Germany", I still can't use the site. Other sites work fine. RTL+ worked once for one show. Since then, no matter if I change browsers, restart the VPN, clear my cache, or anything else, it won't work. I even downloaded and installed Firefox on the computer and tried to use a totally new, unused browser, but I was blocked all the same. It did work once, so I know it's possible, but I can't figure out why it keeps blocking me. Even my own desktop weather and news thinks I'm in Frankfurt. But somehow RTL knows I'm not really in Germany.

I'm stumped.